Dice Roller
Roll up to six big dice for games and math centres: regular six-sided dice or 4, 8, 10, 12 and 20-sided ones, with the total and a tally of every roll.
Tally of totals
Dice Roller · free from Fieldbook Learning
How to use it
Choose how many dice to roll (one to six) and how many sides they have: regular six-sided dice, or 4, 8, 10, 12 and 20-sided ones. Press Roll or the spacebar. Six-sided dice show pips; the others show a big number on a simple shape (a triangle for 4 sides, a diamond for 8, a pentagon for 12 and so on) so the whole class can read them from the back of the room. The dice tumble briefly, unless your device is set to reduce motion.
Click a die to hold it: it keeps its number on the next roll. Turn on Give each die its own colour so students can say "the blue die" and "the yellow die". Under Show as, pick the plain total, the sum written out (3 + 5 = 8), or, with two dice, the difference or the product. The tally under the dice counts every total so far as a bar chart. Changing the number of dice or sides starts a new tally, and Clear tally starts one any time. Use the Full screen button for a projector.
Math centre games with virtual dice
- Race to 100: partners take turns rolling two dice and adding the total to their score. The first to reach 100 wins.
- Addition and multiplication facts: set Show as to Sum written out or Product and have students say the answer before you reveal it. Hold one die on 6 to practise just the 6 times table or "6 plus" facts.
- Difference: with two dice, students find how far apart the numbers are. Who can find two rolls with the same difference?
- Place-value dice: roll three ten-sided dice and arrange the digits to make the largest (or smallest) three-digit number you can. Ask students to read the number aloud and name the value of each digit.
Why 7 comes up most with two dice
Roll two six-sided dice a few dozen times and watch the tally. Each die has 6 faces, so there are 6 × 6 = 36 equally likely pairs. Six of those pairs add to 7 (1 + 6, 2 + 5, 3 + 4, 4 + 3, 5 + 2, 6 + 1), but only one pair makes 2 and only one makes 12. That is why the bars slowly build a hill with 7 in the middle. With one die every number is equally likely, so the bars stay roughly level. Short runs are bumpy; the more you roll, the clearer the shape.
- Before rolling, which total do you think will win with two dice? Why?
- Why can you never roll a total of 1 with two dice?
- What happens to the tally with one 20-sided die compared with two 10-sided dice?
Free to use, no account needed. It runs in your browser: nothing you type, and no sound from your microphone, is sent to Fieldbook.
Hands-on lessons to pair with Dice Roller
Ready-to-teach units, each lesson a printable teacher guide and student sheet. Your first three lessons are free.
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Three full lessons, free
Make a free account and download any three Fieldbook lessons, from any grade or subject, as printable PDFs. No card needed.
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